Cigarette smoking is a habit many smokers try to quit or reduce. There are well-documented health hazards posed by cigarette smoke, including secondary smoke. Also, the cost of the habit constitutes a significant financial burden to the smoker. Government taxes raise this cost further. It is very much in the interest of smokers to reduce both the amount of tobacco and the number of cigarettes they smoke, as well as the amount of secondary smoke they inhale.
One way for smokers to reduce the amount of tobacco smoked is to smoke only part of each cigarette. Many smokers are satisfied with smoking only part of a cigarette, and snuff burning partially-smoked cigarettes by grinding or crushing them against the bottom of a conventional ashtray. Another method of snuffing burning, partially-smoked cigarettes is by depriving the burning tobacco of oxygen. U.S. Pat. No. 2,990,055 to Hughes, 1961 Jun. 27, discloses an addition to cigarette packages which enables a smoker to do this.
Few smokers could or would smoke the partially-smoked cigarette (the "butt") that results from the use of either of these methods. Grinding or crushing usually breaks or tears the cigarette, rendering the butt unsmokable. Even if it is not rendered unsmokable, the butt has burnt tobacco at the end; it is visually unappealing and smelly, and pieces of burnt tobacco are prone to breaking off the butt. Also, pieces of burning tobacco are often broken off a cigarette as it its being ground or crushed. As these pieces burn they release smoke into the smoker's environment. The pieces of burning tobacco can ignite butts or other inflammable materials in an ashtray, releasing more smoke.
Depriving a burning cigarette of oxygen also leaves burnt tobacco at the end of the butt, and releases smoke into the invention and eventually the environment until all the oxygen in the snuffing compartment has been consumed.
Both of the aforementioned methods waste the remaining unburnt tobacco and release smoke into the environment.